SHOULD WE ENTER INTO COVENANT WITH GOD? HOW TO ENTER INTO COVENANT
WITH THE ETERNAL ONE?
INTRODUCTION
Certainly, you already
heard phrases like: "You have to make a covenant (or, if you prefer, make
a commitment) with the Eternal One." or "You have to accept Christ in
your life." Everything seems perfectly right. Comes the question: to what
extent is this true (if it is true)?
I hope that this
article edifies you and allow you to find the answer to this question.
WHAT IS A COVENANT?
According to the dictionary, Covenant is:
·
Pact or treaty for a particular purpose, uniting
harmoniously two things or different people from themselves;
·
The initiative of the Eternal One to make
a pact with individuals, as well as with a people to form a family for Himself
(Malachi 2.15).
An important
thing to be highlighted is the ability of the Eternal One to unite two very
different individuals so harmonious. One of the biggest mistakes when wanting
to build relationships is wanting to join to similar individuals or who has
quite an affinity with.
PURPOSE OF THE COVENANT
· "And
did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one?
That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take
heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his
youth." (Mal 2.15).
Note that, when
the Eternal One instituted marriage, He sought for Himself a seed, namely, a
seed through which He could express His piety.
Although we
glorify the Eternal One walking in purity and holiness, the time in which we
glorify the Eternal One the most is when we forgive those who offended us and
pass this witness ahead for all those who the Eternal One gives us (as occurred
with Christ: although His life of perfection has been something beautiful, the
acme of His life was when he gave His life to redeem the creation on
Golgotha).
WHAT KIND OF COVENANT DELIGHT
JESUS?
I have seen many
individuals are proposing to make a covenant with the Eternal One (or a
covenant with God, if you prefer). Unfortunately, there are few who meditate
with depth in Holy Scripture. Analyze the covenants that the Eternal One made
with mankind:
1st -
It was the Eternal One who created Adam, made a
covenant with him and gave Eva to ratify this covenant and give him conditions
to fulfill it fully (Mal 2.13).
o
"Therefore
shall a man leave his father
and his mother,
and shall cleave unto his wife: and they
shall be one flesh."
(Genesis 2.24).
o
"And God blessed them, and God said
unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over
the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth
upon the earth." (Genesis 1.28)
2nd -
It was the Eternal One whom called Noah and made a
covenant with him:
o
"And I will establish my covenant with
you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood;
neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy
the earth. And God said, This is the token of the
covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with
you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall
be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth." (Genesis 9.11-13)
3rd -
It was the Eternal One who called Abraham and made a
covenant with him:
o
"Now
the LORD had said unto Abram, Get
thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house,
unto a land that I will shew thee: and
I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee,
and make thy name great;
and thou shalt be a blessing: and
I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth
thee: and in thee shall all
families of the earth be
blessed." (Genesis 12.1-3).
o
"And I will make thy seed as the dust
of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy
seed also be numbered." (Genesis
13.16).
o
"And he brought him forth abroad, and
said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if
thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And
he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness." (Gen 15.5,6)
4th -
It was the Eternal One who called Moses and made a
covenant with him and, through him, with Israel.
o
"And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they
said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient." (Exodus 24.7)
5th -
It was the Eternal One who called Joshua and made a
covenant with him:
o
"Every
place that the sole of your
foot shall tread upon, that
have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon
even unto the great river, the
river Euphrates, all the land
of the Hittites,
and unto the great sea toward
the going down of the
sun, shall be your coast. There shall not
any man be
able to stand before thee all
the days of thy life:
as I was with Moses, so I will be with
thee: I will not fail thee,
nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good
courage: for unto this people shalt thou
divide for an inheritance the land, which
I sware unto their fathers to give
them. Only be thou strong
and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the
law, which Moses my servant
commanded thee: turn not from
it to the right hand or
to the left, that thou
mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law
shall not depart out of thy
mouth; but thou shalt meditate
therein day and night, that
thou mayest observe to do according to all that
is written therein: for then thou shalt make
thy way prosperous,
and then thou shalt have
good success. Have not I commanded
thee? Be strong and of a good
courage; be not afraid, neither
be thou dismayed:
for the LORD thy God is with
thee whithersoever thou goest."
(Joshua 1.3-9).
6th -
It was the Eternal One who called Jeremiah:
o
"Then the word of the LORD came unto
me, saying, before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou
camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I
ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD!
behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall
send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid
of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD." (Jer 1.4-8).
7th -
It was the Eternal One who sent Jesus and made a covenant
with His Church through Him:
o
“For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.”
(John 3.16).
o
"Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God,
and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest
have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." (1 John 4.10).
o "And
all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (2Cor 5.18,19).
8th -
It was the Eternal One, in Jesus Christ, who chose the
apostles (and not the other way round):
o "Ye
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go
and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye
shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you." (John 15.16).
Note in these
and in other alliances that the Eternal One did, that always the initiative was
of Him. And certainly it had to be
thus:
o "And
their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the
midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto
me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith
the LORD." (Jeremiah 30.21).
o "Their
feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts
are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The
way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have
made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein
shall not know peace." (Isaiah 59.7,8).
And glory to the
Eternal One by the wonderful covenant that He made with the Church through
Christ. Do you want covenant better or more excellent than it? Hence Jesus
said:
o "When
Jesus therefore had received the vinegar,
he said, It
is finished: and he bowed
his head, and gave up
the ghost."
(John 19.30).
When Jesus said,
"it is finished", He was, among other things, wanting to say that the
covenant that the Eternal One had done with the human being is completely
ready, there is more to be done and not another type of covenant that we invent
to try to please Him.
Or we accept the
pact that the Eternal One made with us or we simply we are deceiving ourselves
and others with a religion that has nothing to do with His good, pleasing
and perfect will for us (Romans 12.1):
o "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth
whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth
me receiveth him that sent me."
(John 13.20).
o "Then
said they unto him, What
shall we do, that we might
work the works of God? Jesus
answered and said unto them, This is the
work of God,
that ye believe
on him whom
he hath sent."
(John 6.28,29).
And the result
is to be rejected as occurred with the five fool virgins (Matt 25.12) and
the workers of Matthew 7.21-23 (Luke 13.23-28).
WHAT IS THE CONVENANT THAT
THE ETHERNAL ONE MADE WITH US IN JESUS?
Unfortunately,
many do not understand even today the message.
o "Then
came to him the disciples of
John, saying, Why
do we and the Pharisees fast
oft, but thy disciples fast
not? And Jesus said unto them, Can the children
of the bridechamber
mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?
but the days
will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken
from them, and then shall
they fast. No man putteth a piece
of new cloth unto an old garment,
for that which is put in to
fill it up taketh from the
garment, and the rent is
made worse. Neither do men put new wine into
old bottles: else the bottles
break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles
perish: but they put new wine
into new bottles, and both are preserved."
(Matthew 9.14-17).
Even today,
individuals are trying to build their family, fraternal, social relationships and
even with the Eternal One based on rights and duties (laws), when the correct
is we seek to unite to each other in Christ based on truth.
The covenant of Eternal
One with us consists in receiving His grace in us (the life of Christ) and live
by Him:
o "He
that loveth not knoweth not
God; for God is love. In this was manifested
the love of God toward
us, because that God sent
his only begotten Son into
the world, that we might live
through him."
(see
1 John 4.8,9).
o
"But
as many as received him, to them
gave he power
to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe
on his name:"
(John 1.12).
THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN MAN
AND WOMAN: AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE COVENANT OF CHRIST WITH THE CHURCH.
· "Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also loved
the church, and gave himself
for it; that he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word, that he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having
spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing; but that it should be holy and
without blemish."
(Ephesians 5.25-27).
As the husband
must love his wife as Christ loved the Church, nothing more indicated
that use marriage as an example of how the Eternal One enters into covenant
with us. Thus, to illustrate how the Eternal One assumed His covenant
with humanity, let us return to Eden. Remember that the marriage was not
the initiative of man, but of the Eternal One:
· "And
the LORD God said, It is not good
that the man should be
alone; I will make him an
help meet for him."
(Genesis 2.18).
When the right
time came, the Eternal One made man rest in Him (Genesis 2.21),
took one of his ribs, made the woman and brought her to him. Note that Adam did
not need to go behind Eve: The Eternal One brought her to Adam and
joined both when Adam identified himself with the woman (Genesis 2.24).
In other words:
when the Eternal One wants to join us, He makes us rest and wait on
Him (Psalm 37.7), works the heart of the one through whom He wishes to
operate in us (and we in him), and then brings the individual to us to knock on
the door of our heart (Rev 3.20). If we open our hearts to this
individual, we are receiving also the Christ:
· "He
that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that
receiveth me receiveth him that sent
me."
(Matthew 10.40).
· "
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world: for I was an hungred, and ye gave me
meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me
in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in
prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying,
Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or
thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee
in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison,
and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I
say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matthew 25.34-40).
In other words,
the covenant of Christ is rooted in our lives every time we receive in us those
whom Jesus brings (see 2 Corinthians 3.1-3).
WHAT IS THE CONVENANT
OF JESUS WITH EACH ONE?
The
principle you say: Jesus is our covenant!
Correct!
However, there is something unique and special that the Eternal One wishes to
express to the universe through each one of us:
· "The
secret of the LORD is with them that
fear him; and he will
shew them his covenant."
(Psalm 25.14).
As the
stars of heaven has its singular identity (Psalm 147.4) and brightness (1
Corinthians 15.41), so each one should make the light of Christ shine in
this world in a singular way (Matthew 5.14-16). In other words, there is
something unique that the Eternal One wishes to manifest in you of His
manifold wisdom (Eph 3.10) and grace (1 Peter 4.10) that until now He
didn’t, nor will in the years ahead. He will manifest this exclusively through
you.
And as this is a
secret between the Eternal One and every living being, it is up to us to find
out from Him what is the nature of His covenant with us (for which He
created us). Nobody else knows (nor even the angels), inasmuch as it is a
secret. And, unless you try to see His covenant in our lives, we are doomed to
go through this world as clouds without water, propelled by the wind, i.e.,
without making a difference in the lives of anyone and vice-versa.
Unfortunately, the
majority leaves the brightness of Christ in their life clear.
CONCLUSION
Well, what will
our choice: live a life shy, struggling just to survive and grow in the
pleasures of the flesh, without any more noble reason to live and to dedicate
ourselves, or are we going to love your neighbor the way that Jesus loved us
(John 13.34,35) (accept the covenant that the Eternal One establish with
us in Christ)?
